Games are not always won by the better-playing or faster team. That was yet another lesson the Devils re-learned about themselves in their three-game California honeymoon with Jason Arnott and Scott Niedermayer.

They returned home from their first-ever Golden State Sweep having remembered that when they are being beaten on skill or speed, as the Sharks were doing to them for the first 35 minutes Saturday, they still can call upon their intangibles, the grit, the desire and the will to win – things that can more than make up for any other deficiency.

“We played with the most emotion I’ve seen this year,” Randy McKay said after that 3-2 victory in the trip finale. “We were fired up by the end of the game. We haven’t played like that enough this season.”

There should be some emotional carryover Wednesday, when the Devils resume their schedule at the Meadowlands, facing the Rangers for the first time this season.

Conventional wisdom shouts “beware” to the Devils in the first game back from a long road trip. Perhaps other teams should now beware the reinforced and resurrected Devils. Their 3-2 victory over the Sharks gave them five-game overall and four-game road winning streaks.

And they were thrilled at sweeping California on a 14-5 goal differential.

“You can’t ask much more than what we did,” Martin Brodeur said.

Even the coach was impressed, refusing to call his team lucky at overcoming a 2-0 deficit to a team that had been unbeaten in seven at home.

“A great road trip,” Larry Robinson said. “Every game, we gave up two goals or less, and we beat good teams, teams on a roll. We have to be very satisfied with this trip.”

Robinson would not shrink from admitting the impact made by his two returnees. Arnott went 2-3-5 and Niedermayer added three assists on the trip, making an obvious difference to the team.

“It’s a pretty good reason,” Robinson said. “We also played a lot better than we were because we’re not pressing, not trying to do too much.

“I’m very pleased with those guys, the way they came in. I thought their timing might be off.”

The Devils will come back to earth someday, but it seems unlikely that it will be with the crash that was their six-game losing streak. Speaking of which, given the way the players leapt to return when Lou Lamoriello bent slightly, was there really any need for that losing streak? No, not if the GM had accurately assessed the team and situation.

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The Devils can actually finish .500 in November with a victory Wednesday. Currently they stand 5-6-1 this month . . . Game officials doubted that Alex Mogilny would face an supplementary discipline for the ejection Saturday night for boarding Todd Harvey, who came back to score the Sharks’ final goal in New Jersey’s 3-2 victory. Robinson said Harvey “should have gotten an Emmy,” for his part in the play. Mogilny, who makes $5.2 million this season, faces an automatic $100 fine for that ejection.

Robinson said his comments about Arnott being overweight were made with motive. “I just kept saying that, hoping he’d read it and try to prove me wrong,” Robinson said . . . Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias each own six-game point streaks, while Scott Gomez has a three-game goal streak.